La Lamota, Altamira, Puerto Plata, D.R.

So I am in my site now. And this first week has certainly been an experience; high ups and low downs. They say that this first week is the hardest part of the Peace Corps. After some days of staying close to my host family's house, I have started to venture around and talk to the neighbors. That is really what I'll be doing for the first 3 months, to get to know the community and to determine what they need, and what they want from me. I am feeling more comfortable every day, but it will take some time. I figured if I can make it to at least 3 houses every day, I can keep myself very busy. I do have a lot of free time.

My family keeps telling me that I am learning spanish really quick. Faster than the other volunteer who was here. So I am a follow up volunteer, which means that there was a volunteer here who just left in February. I am going to be continuing the project that she started, making energy efficient stoves and water filters. It i n nice to have a community that is familiar with the Peace Corps and what I am doiong here, but they loved the other volunteer so much, and they are comparing me to her. That is beginning to get a little annoying, but it shows how much they really care about people here, even if they are foreigners. Plus I can use it to my advantage. I have heard that volunteers sometimes struggle with people not wanting them there, etc. So I am pretty lucky. I am going to start teaching english to my host brother starting next week. He is working, saving money to go to the university and study engineering, and he wants to learn english first. He is pretty eager to get started, and I am excited about his motivation. This will also help me practice my conversational spanish skills.

You will all be glad to know that I am getting along just fine in the insect department! Since I am in the mountains and it is colder here, there aren't any of those gross, HUGE, disgusting bugs that I was so nervous about. I have only seen one cockroach in my site, and there are no tarantulas here. Buena Suerte! There are mice though. I only saw one, but I know there is one in my room. It helped itself to an apple that I left on my table. The next night, my host mom, Milagros, put some rat poison on a piece of salami and put it on my table. I woke up in the middle of the night, I could hear it scurrying around, that's what they do, they scurry. And in the morning the salami was gone. Turns out, the mouse only got the salami as far as the floor, never found the mouse, but the dog ate the rest of the poison laced salami. He got really sick, and I was really worried. But these Dominicans have home remedies for everything! They made a concoction of milk, dirt, sugar, and sour orange juice, the dog pucked within 10 min, and all is well! So what happended to the mouse, no one knows, but as for the apple, Milagros washed it, cut off the nibbled parts, and we ate it with some peanut butter. I think that was a “I know I'm in the D.R.” moment.